As we began our historical fiction unit last year, there were a couple of skills I wanted to make sure the students had. One was the ability to do research that would allow them to put the novel in its proper context. The other was knowing how to figure out the essential questions that needed answering through the research. It didn’t take long for me to think of a song that could help with both of those things.

Bhi Bhiman is a excellent song writer with a huge/amazing voice. His songs are unique. They’re quirky. His song Kimchee Line was the first song I’d ever heard written from the perspective of a North Korean man. It’s a great song, but if you don’t have the proper context for it, it won’t make much sense. So I thought it would be the perfect way to cover these research skills before we began our unit.

Here’s a concise version of how it went in my 6th grade English class last year (the lesson took 2 days):

Step 1: We listened to the song and read the lyrics. At this point the kids were reading with slightly confused looks on their faces. Also they seemed amazed at my impeccable taste in music. But maybe I was reading too much into their expressions...
Step 2: I asked a few students to explain what’s happening in the song. Who the speaker is. What the situation is. The answers were all over the place. No real consensus on what was happening. They had fallen right into my carefully laid educational trap.  
Step 3: I asked them to identify words or phrases that could be clues to the meaning of the song. I wrote those in black on the board.
Step 4: Using prior knowledge, they made inferences about what the words and phrases could mean. I wrote the inferences on the board in green. I didn’t lead them in a particular direction here. I just wrote down their thoughts and ideas.  
Step 5: After the discussion and inferences, most of my classes were on the right track. There was at least one kid in every class who knew kimchee was Korean. Some classes knew general knowledge of the conflict between North and South Korea. The next step for us was to do some research to fill in the gaps in our knowledge. We developed a few essential research terms. History of Korea, North Korea, Kim Jong Un Korean war, etc.
Step 6: The students searched the internet for information about the topics. It gave me an opportunity to reinforce what they’d learned in elementary about reliable sources. I also had them start with the online databases our library utilizes.  
Step 7: The final step was to come back together after doing the research and discuss the song again. This time, though, they had the proper context for the song, so their understanding of it was greatly enhanced.Their minds were blown by the power of research. It was like rewatching the entire Game of Thrones series after you find out that...just kidding. No spoilers here.

Here’s a link to the video for Kimchee Line. It’s going to get stuck in your head. You’re welcome.

Nathan Garvin
​6th Grade English

 One of my favorite things to do with my students is to find ways to use music in the classroom. More specifically, I like to use songs from the (typically indie) artists that I love and think everyone else should know about. If I can foster a good taste in music, I’ll know when the kids leave my classroom that they’re going to make good music decisions when they grow up.

This past year in 6th grade English we did a memoir unit centered around the themes of perspective and empathy. In the introduction to this unit, we did a few activities to better understand those two concepts. One of them was listening and reading the lyrics to Two Animals by Oh, Jeremiah. The lyrics to the song can be found here.

It’s the tale of two animals who are captured, kept in a zoo, then escape. The reason it worked so well for our unit is that it’s told from the perspective of one of the animals. After reading the lyrics, we had a good discussion as a class. We started with basic comprehension of the song. What happened, the points of the plot chart we could see in the narrative, inferences about the kind of animal the speaker is. Then the discussion turned to our themes of perspective and empathy. Students commented on the difference of having the story told in first person vs third and how it enhanced the empathy felt for the speaker. The students took it further and talked about how it raised ethical questions about zoos and animal captivity.

The students were engaged and understood perspective and empathy better. I was happy because the lesson worked, and I got to listen to good music all day. When I tweeted about the lesson, Oh, Jeremiah retweeted us, so obviously they were happy too. It was a classic, Michael Scott win-win-win scenario.
Here’s the video for Two Animals, and you can click here to see the band’s homepage. They just released a new album that has been playing in my car all week. 
Nathan Garvin
​6th Grade ELA

  In this space, you’ll find some commentary/ideas on different types of media we've used for various reasons. Maybe they helped us in our classroom designing process, inspired us to become better educators, or maybe we actually used them in class with the kiddos. Take a look!
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  Seeing as how this is our first media post. I figured I'd start with one of life's simple questions. Do aliens exist?
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Some context.
  You see, I teach 7th grade language arts, and while most people will argue that I’m actually TEACHING aliens, I’ve come to share a little different perspective today. Last year I really tried to bring in some interesting, scientific, conspiracy theory-esque, or debatable articles into our curriculum as much as I could. I was thinking about how our students are constantly on the internet--YouTube, SnapChat, Twitter, and the likes, so why not meet them where they are? Still cover what we’re required to cover, but use resources that are more meaningful to students. Nothing new really, but definitely worth giving a shot if you haven’t already.

Side note.
  A cousin of mine just finished 7th grade...we actually have a lot in common now...Anyway, she told me that they call their English language arts classes, Communication Arts Class. That really struck a chord with me. I’ve always felt like I was teaching an art. The art of being a valuable citizen. The art of contributing to our society. This is why I love teaching the subject. It’s really not about one subject, is it? It’s the art of taking in a work of literature or piece of art, and being able to express unique thoughts and perspectives about those experiences--the art of communicating through reading, listening, writing, and responding in an educated way. Sure, I may now also think of myself as a wizard of sorts, à la Professor Snape. Defense Against the Illiterate Arts, if you will.

Back to the article.
  So the idea was to use these articles that students may have actually come across in their internet browsing, and really have them apply some higher level thinking to the article. (Things they should be doing on their own, really.) Again, nothing new to most of you. It was just quite freeing to be able to use interesting articles rather than boring reading passages to allow students to engage, have conversation, debate, and to meet the standards they’re asked to meet by our state. More importantly, they were learning how to be good readers: detect bias, think for themselves, evaluate the information, evaluate sources, and apply things they already knew to new information.

This is the article.
http://www.sciencealert.com/the-tardigrade-genome-has-been-sequenced-and-it-has-the-most-foreign-dna-of-any-animal

  This article describes the weirdest creature I have ever read about--The tardigrade, AKA the waterbear. This creature can survive in space, can withstand the most extreme temperatures, is super tiny, can live without food or water for more than 10 years, can survive radiation and pressure, can basically dehydrate and rehydrate itself, and probably most importantly, has foreign DNA.

Lots to talk about.

• Does this remind you of anything you’ve seen, read, or heard before?
• What does it mean for something to be considered an alien?
• What does this weird article mean for us as humans?

(Also, I may have argued, based on text evidence of course, that this creature was technically an alien, hence my initial question: Do aliens exist? We had a good time debating that inquiry.)

  This article can be taken in SO many directions. Apply it to science, math, history, art, or whatever your specialty might be. New vocabulary words were learned; inferences were made; predictions were created; information was summarized; connections were made; and most importantly, genuine thought and dialogue took place in the classroom.

The Point.
  The article you choose doesn’t matter. Choosing resources that are weird, engaging, frightening, hilarious...out of this world...now that’s where it’s at! If you aren’t interested in tardigrades, try something else. We all like reading interesting information, so we need to stop giving students a snooze fest in the classroom. If you are mindful and passionate about the articles you use in the classroom, your students will follow. ​And who knows, you might even be able to answer some of life's truly big questions.

Megan Gordon
​7th grade ELA

*Photo credit (Tippet Studio/Cosmos a Spacetime Odyssey)
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